The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don't

Chapter 9. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Stick with Your Strategy and Stick It to Him

This chapter is largely about the investment advice of managing a portfolio, picking stocks, and avoiding common mistakes. It isn't about knowing something others don't with the Three Questions. By now you've seen the Three Questions at work. I've demonstrated examples of what I've learned over the years with the Questions. Chapters 5 through 8 were largely example after example of looking at the world through the Three Questions. I hope you can start investing by seeing things others don't. I hope you can see things I can't.

But we're not done yet. As Chapter 3 hinted, one tool to stay disciplined with the Three Questions and keep your scurrilous brain in check and not be humiliated by TGH is having a comprehensive strategy driving decisions. Just using the Three Questions is great! But a strategy provides a basis and framework from which you can ask the Three Questions and make small (or big) bets keeping you on path toward your goals.

Maybe you think you already have a pretty good strategy. Fair enough—but many investors who believe they have a strategy actually confuse tactics with strategy. For example, some investors want market-like returns with low fees, so their "strategy" is buying no-load mutual funds. That is a philosophy, not a strategy. Operating that way without a strategy, 10 years later, you won't have paid any load fees but you won't have gotten great returns. A strategy would involve ...